Third World War

War cannot decide who is right… It only decides who is left.
Dr. Aniruddha Dhairyadhar Joshi feels we are doomed to repeat history—“Concealed behind her veil of calm, the witch, that is the third world war, knocks at the door.” He gives his audience a very readable gloss of past wars and an analysis of the present political situation that leads to his dire prediction. The book itself is beautifully laid out in bite sized chapters with call-outs, color and black and white photo portraits and helpful maps. This is an excellent primer on current world politics, though to be on the safe side I might recommend substantiating some of his more subjective observations by checking other sources.

Like World War I, he believes the next big conflict will be fought, not over noble principles, but out of selfish and war hungry motivation. And similar to World War II, it will result from pride (“The hate born in the as yet unorganized mentality or psyche of the society also generates intense and overpowering contempt for those, who mete out injustice: and it is thus that is born, a Hitler, a representative of dire brutality that wished to avenge the insult to his nation’s pride.”) I found his background on Osama Bin Laden particularly fascinating. Born of a billionaire father, Osama, the 17th of thirty step-siblings, received nothing but humiliation as he grew up because he was physically weak (in fact he is now dying of a kidney ailment). “Al Quaeda” is an eleven volume code of law authored by Osama Bin Laden himself. The author states that, “prior to 1991, it was the U.S.A. along with the CIA, that had provided Osama with arms and other aid and sent him to Afghanistan to drive the Russians out.” Why do we know so little about our enemies? Is it to demonize those we must destroy? In any case, the author sees Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, not Bin Laden, as the catalyst for the next big one.

In drawing some conclusions, ala von Clausewitz’s “On War,” the book argues, “A nation at war needs a political leadership that is shrewd and insightful, diplomatic, skillful and tough… The people of this nation at war must have a tendency to sacrifice comfort and good life for the sake of the nation.” I wonder how shrewd and insightful our American leadership has proven and one of the worrisome things about the Iraq War is how little day by day life in the United States has seemed affected.

Dr. Aniruddha Dhairyadhar Joshi sees the Israel-Palestine locations as prime for where World War III would spark or it could begin with an attack by America on Iran if the CIA is unable to topple the present government there. I found the history of Iran in light of past British oil and gas exploitation, eye-opening to say the least. Because of various geographic and ideological alliances the next major war would involve at least 90 nations directly. The author describes India’s role as pivotal in preventing it.

The last hundred pages are a bit repetitious. The sections on types of warfare seem generic and the bulleted paragraphs start to lose their impact. Some of the chapters on Cuba, Africa and South America are less relevant than those on Pakistan (the “Ambassador of Misfortune”) and Afghanistan, but this is an accessible introduction to a subject we need to know more about now. Whether or not anyone can stem the course of history.